Several months after first introducing the ‘Project Q’ remote play PS5 peripheral to the world, Sony has now given it a second reveal under its official name, PlayStation Portal.
This new remote play accessory for the PS5 sports an 8-inch LCD screen and will cost USD $200. The caveat? It requires Wi-Fi at all times.
Power to the (remote) players
Sony’s PlayStation Portal for the PS5, now being aptly dubbed the “New PSP” by some, serves as optional hardware that’s dedicated to giving PS5 owners more flexibility with how they play their games. While Remote Play functionality is not at all new to the PlayStation family, it used to be a feature that was dedicated to use on Sony’s portables. The original PSP could Remote Play PS3 titles and the PS Vita could Remote Play PS4 titles.
With the absence of a real PS handheld in the current age, Sony has now opted to create a device exclusively for Remote Play purposes and that device is PlayStation Portal.
As Senior VP of Platform Experience at Sony’s SIE, Hideaki Nishino, puts it — the PS Portal has been designed to cater to PS5 owners who want to make use of all the advanced features found in the console’s DualSense controllers. That’s why the PS Portal sports all of the functionality of the DualSense, with bright, wide, 8-inch LCD screen in the middle, allowing the action to continue off the TV.
The Portal’s screen has a 1080p output and can fully display content at 60 FPS. “Supported games” can be displayed on the device, but must first be installed on your PS5 console. The console will then stream said games over Wi-Fi. The Portal will then take over to interact with the content.
Thus, as expected, the PS Portal features no processing of its own; it merely acts as a DualSense with a screen. That said, the note about the “supported games” goes onto explain that PSVR2 games, and also games that are available via the PS Plus Premium cloud streaming library are not compatible with the Portal.
Pairing up
To go along with the PS Portal, and/or also with the PS5 itself, Sony is also releasing two new audio devices: the Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds. Both have been designed to deliver a “premium portable audio experience” with support for lossless audio, and even feature AI-enhanced noise rejection when using their included mics.
Both of these audio devices will be making use of PlayStation Link, the “new wireless audio technology” that Sony has developed.
It’s responsible for delivering “low latency, lossless audio and easy switching between multiple PS Link hosts such as PS5 with the USB adapter and PS Portal.” Both the headset and earbuds will come bundled with a USB adapter for use with PS Link; it’s required for the functionality to work. It’ll also be sold as an additional accessory for those on PC/Mac to also make use of the PS Link functionality.
Another neat feature of both the headset and earbuds is multi-device pairing by connecting one device through PS Link and another via Bluetooth. Sony’s example is having the headset paired to a PS5 via PS Link while simultaneously being connected to a phone via Bluetooth. As a result, the user will be able to answer a call seamlessly while gaming.
The Pulse Elite wireless headset will launch at the MSRP of $149.99 USD and the Pulse Explore earbuds will go for a slightly higher price-tag at $199.99.
Release dates for these audio devices and the PS Portal will be revealed at a later time, but they’re both expected to launch later this year.
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